Adjuncts

by Editor
February 17, 2014 at 6:55 am

https://www.smartertimes.com/1140/adjuncts

A Times editorial bemoans the use of adjunct and other non-tenure-track professors on college campuses: "the nature of the college work force has changed substantially, possibly to the detriment of educational quality....This increasing dependence on inexpensive adjuncts may be bad for students, as well. ...the new college campus, rife with adjuncts and administrators, does not seem geared to fulfill what is, after all, the major mission of universities: educating students."

The editorial is flawed in several ways. First, note the use of weasel words "possibly...may be...seem." The detrimental effect on education is speculative.

Second, the Times editorial fails to confront evidence that the end of tenure is good for students — a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research by the president of Northwestern University comparing learning by two groups of students at Northwestern University— those taking classes with tenured or tenure-track professors, and those taking classes from non-tenure-line faculty. As the abstract put it: "We find consistent evidence that students learn relatively more from non-tenure line professors in their introductory courses." There's no mention of this research in the Times editorial.

Third, it's hypocritical of the Times to criticize colleges for doing what the Times itself does aplenty — use free lance labor without benefits. To use the specific example of the Times editorial page, not every opinion piece in the Times is written by a Times staff columnist with full-time salary and benefits. Many opinion pieces are written by free lance contributors who also have other jobs. These free lance contributors are less expensive. Maybe it would be better for readers if the Times hired more columnists instead of using free lance contributors, but maybe not. It's an analogous situation.

Fourth, if all these classes taught by non-tenure-track professors are so terrible for students, why are so many Times journalists complicit in the practice? The list of adjunct faculty at Columbia Journalism School includes New York Times staffers Walt Bogdanich and Joseph Nocera. David Brooks teaches at Yale.

Fifth, also absent from the Times editorial is any mention of soaring college tuition prices. If colleges can pay professors less, they might be able to charge students less, which might be a good thing.